Thanksgiving in NYC for our birthdays

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

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We flew to Newark today to start our birthdays trip. I had voted to drive up but Clay over-ruled me. We got cheap seats on United. It was a full flight and OK except for a rough take-off and a world-class rough landing. Descent was about a half-hour long nightmare and I was only a couple of minutes from using the barf bag when mercifully it was over. We didn't check luggage so as quick as we could get outside we took a cab into Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel. This was convenient but the tolls for the roads and tunnel made it extravagant. I was relieved to sit in a car though!

We got in about noon and our parade view room at the Essex House was not promised until 4pm. We dropped our bags with the Bellman forgetting how cold it was outside and leaving our extra layers and Clay's hat and gloves in the bags. Oh well. On top of that we somehow gave Clay's cell phone number to the desk wrong or it was typed in wrong. Anyway, when we got back after 4pm and the room 610 was ready for us, Clay asked why he wasn't called and we found out they had called some other number. Oh well. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade view rooms on floors 3 to 8 are available at Essex House for a 3-night minimum for a queen bed for us at $1799 per night. This will definitely be a once in a lifetime experience for us.

Clay wanted to walk by Trump Tower and St. Patrick's Cathedral so we walked that way. At The Plaza I saw a sign for Todd English Food Hall in the basement and we went in. It was like a big fancy food court. We wanted a Chinese place but as we waited it came clear we'd never get a seat so we crossed over to the crepe place. It was very good. We each had a savory and shared a Nutella. We also shared a Nutella hot cocoa. It was a great lunch and affordable. We'll be back as it is open from morning to 8pm.

It was a police state zoo on 5th Avenue a block either side of Trump Tower. I pity  people who live around there! We walked on down to St. Patricks and went in. We walked down another half block and across the street to Rockefeller Plaza. We went in the big Lego store and got Mom a new watch for Christmas after some phone consultations. We watched the zamboni and the ice skaters. We walked back by MoMA. We spent enough time in their large gift shop to realize that neither of us love modern art enough to wait in line to pay about $25 pp to go in the museum.

We got our room and waited to 5pm to go back out. We had seen a place about a half block away called Nino's Tuscany that had a sign outside for wood oven pizza. We went back for dinner. We were the first ones! By 6:10pm other people were arriving but I was beat already. We got a salad for Clay and a meat lover's pizza to share. We couldn't finish it. It had no tomato sauce on it! It was alright. We skipped dessert and went to the Food Hall again. Before dinner we had gone to CVS a couple of blocks away and got Coke Zeros for the room. We also checked out a deli/grocery place that is over on 6th Avenue just around the corner from the back entrance here. It is open 24 hours a day so that will work nicely for us!

Tomorrow we hope to visit the Guggenheim and go see the big balloons being inflated for the 90th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

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